Oak Park will be headed into this week's matchup vs Ruskin with some extra confidence coming off of two big wins against #3 ranked Raytown and a strong William Chrisman team, the Northmen hadn't beaten in the last 4 years. This group of players seems to like this new feeling of winning, and know they ready to make it three in a row against this Ruskin Eagle team (1-2).
Let's not look past this Ruskin team. I believe they could be a bit of an underrated opponent heading into week 4 of the season. The Eagles captured a win at home against Belton and then suffered back-to-back losses against two very strong Suburban Conference teams, Smithville and North Kansas City.
WHAT TO LOOK FORÂ
Once again this is more than likely going to be about the ground game on both sides. Both teams have very mobile quarterbacks Marius Hill for Ruskin and Blake Bland for the Northmen. The Eagles really spread the ball around when it comes to running the ball. Last week Ruskin had 4 different players with more than 10 rushing yards and several carries.
The Ruskin defense gave up 175 rushing yards so they'll definitely have to be sharper on that end to stop this dominate Oak Park run game. For the Northmen, Najib Alhakeem and Phill Corbin will without a doubt be getting the majority of the carries the Northmen behind offensive line Micheal Larson, Jackson White, Garret Waddell Desmond Lamb, and Ryan Woodson. Don't be surprised if you see the Northmen try to throw the ball a little more this week and put quarterback Blake Bland in some successful situations to gain some of that Week 1 confidence.
The Oak Park the Defense has been on fire allowing only 14 points in their last 2 games, so they'll look to keep that rolling this week. I believe the defensive line will be the difference-maker this week, and expect to see a couple of turnovers and TFL's from Jacob Mustard, Cory Warren, and Taylor Buenaflor. Keep an eye on some of the younger Northmen, such as Ardrace Hughes and Jet Sutton to make some impact plays for this stingy Oak Park Defense, and give '20 LB Colton Tisthammer and '20 LB Phil Corbin some support to do their thing.
NORTHMEN KEYS TO VICTORY
The Northmen running game is predictable, but that doesn't keep it from being one of the best in the city. You know what Oak Park is going to do, and they will pound the rock early and often. What we have yet to see, is playmakers Najib Alhakeem, Phil Corbin, and Logan Willmann take it all the way on a big play. Is this the week for the Northmen RB's and WR's to hit a home run?Â
The Northmen defense just needs to be consistent and limit mistakes. They've been good at avoiding penalties and gotten very lucky not getting caught out of position, preventing the big plays. Oak Park will need to continue doing what it's found to be successful and if this defense can get a little more production out of its young guys each week, you could be watching one of the best defenses in the city this season.
THE FINAL TAKEAWAY
Every win is an important one but getting a convincing win against Ruskin this week could be huge for the Northmen. They will need to do it in all three phases of the game before they head to Fort Osage next week. This week the offense has to get off to a "running" start early and the defense has to avoid making mistakes and put that pressure on Ruskin. Oak Park Northmen travel to Ruskin to take on the Eagles, kickoff at 7 pm, for the chance to go 3-1 on the season and 3-0 in conference play.
